Lots of miles, observations, learning experiences.

Scott & Heather · November 22, 2016, 06:43:09 AM

We have now clocked almost 11,000 miles since Labor Day weekend. This has been one heck of a shakedown run. As many of you know, we sold our MCI 9, then we bought a 102C3 shell and converted it in 13 weeks and literally moved in and hit the road. I cannot stress enough how thankful I am for every one of you here and how helpful you guys were when we were sidelined. Here are a few learning points that you guys have helped me gain during this journey so far and some observations as well:

1. Most of you remember that we were broken down for 4 days in Roswell. This turned out to be a simple relay that sent 12 volts to the ECM harness and was remedied without issue. I've been driving problem free ever since. Electronics can fail right in the middle of a 60mph drive. But I have learned that the coach and a multimeter will give you clues to follow that will narrow down the issue by process of elimination. Having the 500 page DDEC II manual was a life saver and I highly recommend having one on your computer because the need will arise. Thanks Ken Arnold for sending that to me and for the copious amount of time you spent on the phone with me and thanks to Cliff and others here who for days helped me to sort this issue out. Side note: I have the old style 12 pin diagnostic port (DDL) and no one this side of heaven has a reader adapter to read codes from that port. So at the suggestion of Ken, I'm pulling that one out and wiring in a newer style round 9 pin (or 6 pin) diagnostic port so that I can get anyone to read codes in the future.

2. I always used to keep a spare blower fan belt on hand. This bus didn't come with one and I never got around to it. That was a mistake. I shredded my belt an hour outside of Tucson near Benson on a Sunday. I literally had to drive our toad three hours to the other side of Phoenix to get the only belt within a 200 mile radius and then back to the coach to install it. 6 hours and 500 miles of driving for a belt that I should have had on board. Never again. I did replace the shredded one with a solid belt this time too (one without the cogs cut in it). They seem a lot sturdier.

3. A turbocharged 8v92 is a remarkably moody beast. It likes certain ambient temps better than others, it likes certain elevations, and I am only now really understanding how the combination of those two variables plays into how it runs. The coach has been struggling to reach max boost ever since I converted it. It was slow and doggy so Ken Arnold uploaded a 500hp setting into my ECM. After this, we were disappointed with how little difference a 100hp ECM change made. The lack of boost was clearly evident and I had to chase down the culprit. In the meantime he turned up fuel even more to make up for some of the boost issues. This indeed did help tremendously and added a lot of power. Many of you suggested I see if the intake was restricted. I bought a filter minder and installed it. While the coach was sitting in the parking lot, in neutral, I started it and revved it to full throttle. After shutting the coach down, I went back and looked at the filter minder. It was only pulled down maybe a line or two indicating very little restriction at all. So I thought that was off the table for finding my boost issue. After actually driving the coach under load for a few hours, when I went and checked, the filter minder was maxed out to the red line indicating I had major restriction. I reset it and drove, and once again it maxed out to the red line. So here's what I think is going on: When we converted the coach this summer, I had to rebuild the air intake in the bedroom area to allow a flat surface to lay the bed on. This made the intake area much smaller. I assumed it wouldn't make much of a difference but in retrospect I was sadly mistaken. Fast forward to driving through an area of Southern California that was probably the lowest elevation I've ever driven...all of the sudden I had boost, my turbo sang the prettiest song, my slight overheat issues were gone and the bus had juicy power even more than previously and no smoke. It was such a dramatic difference that I pulled over and checked the air filter because I was sure I had a perforation somewhere. The filter and intake was all solid and sealed so I asked around on here and some of you guys mentioned the low elevation making the difference. I had a hard time believing it, but as we climbed later on that week, the song ended, the power went away, the exhaust turned black and the slight overheating issues returned. Lesson learned, elevation means everything. Yesterday we drove through Flagstaff. It snowed pretty good through there, so it was cold yet my coach still hovered in the upper 190's for temps. We had terrible power, and lots of black smoke. I got out my altimeter app on my iPhone and it indicated at one point we were at 7300 feet elevation. That explained everything. Sure enough once we descended and made it to Gallup NM she ran better, less smoke, more power and she ran cooler. All this to say, elevation matters, and I really need to get that 1500 CFM air filter and housing cliff was telling me about. I never really would have believed it, but restricted air intakes can make your coach run hotter.

4. Air bag suspension experimentation:
Our coach has had two issues since we bought it. It has always wanted to lean curbside and has had a terrible side to side rocking motion while driving and would lean so far when turning corners it was scary. I had full-timed in our MCI 9 for almost 6 years and never experienced anything like this, so I knew I needed to deal with it. The brand new leveling valves were set to their highest ride height setting so I couldn't raise the coach anymore, but the bracketing and adjustment holes looked custom and not factory so I ditched the valves and installed my own manual system with gauges at the dash. After thousands of miles of driving, I settled in on 75 psi for the divers side bags and 80 psi for the curbside bags. This keeps the coach level and completely eliminated the swaying and leaning. She drives rock solid down the hwy now. In fact we drove around 77 mph yesterday for hours without worrying about upcoming curves on the hwy and no rocking motion at all. Even a 30mph direct side-wind didn't give us any grief. Lesson learned, proper ride height makes a huge huge difference in how the coach drives. Side Note: since bypassing the leveling valves, I now have full control over the bags. My Goodyear bags can handle up to 100psi (per the packaging instructions). If I raise one side to 90psi and drain the other side totally, I have a remarkable amount of leveling ability. Same for front to back. I know some of you have said you didn't get much travel out of your air bag leveling system, but we have the newer style rolling lobe bags (they are brand new) and I haven't measured it but I'm getting a lot of travel out of my system. I don't recommend inflating your bags beyond the manufacturers recommended limit because you can distort the bag, but in my case I have an awesome system that really provides the travel I need to level out in most situations. Anything beyond that, I have lynx levelers for. Second Side Note: I had my bus in a shop where we could check the driveline angles while the bags were set at the pressure I liked. All was well and no obvious major angle on the driveshaft/u joints was visible. Not very scientific but good enough for me.

I know this was a long post, but someday someone may be searching key words about any of the above subject matter and this archived post might actually be helpful.

Final side note: by the time we get home to Michigan for Christmas we will have well over 12,000 miles logged since Labor Day weekend. That's a lot of miles and the vast majority of them were problem free. This coach has run the hills with the big dogs and has crossed some mountain passes without drama. She's kept us warm and cool, comfortable and dry. My plumbing, electrical, and house systems have all worked flawlessly and even though we aren't done yet, our 13 week conversion has been remarkable comfortable and reliable. Here's to another 12,000 troublefree miles!

Final final side note: my dad taught me to scorpion hunt in Tucson a few weeks ago using a black light at night. Crazy fun. We killed 24 scorpions and three black widow spiders in and around his house in two nights of hunting.

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DoubleEagle · November 22, 2016, 06:55:26 AM

Great post, and I only saw two scary things - the scorpion, and the oil tracks on the front driver side wheel.

lostagain · November 22, 2016, 08:29:19 AM

I think once you correct the air intake: bigger filter, and unrestricted plumbing, you will hardly notice the changes in altitude. The turbo more than compensates for the thinner air up high. And it won't smoke either. Sounds like you got yourself a good bus...

JC

Dave5Cs · November 22, 2016, 08:55:43 AM

Ditto on the airbags.

Dave5Cs

luvrbus · November 22, 2016, 09:24:53 AM

You get the air intake straighten out the 8v92 will carry the mail,off topic here but I always wondered why Don (box car okie) 8v92 would scoot down the road so good. I finally looked real close and his 8v92 in his Eagle he has a charge air cooler mounted on passengers side it moves Don is not blowing smoke either

Scott & Heather · November 22, 2016, 02:33:10 PM

Good eye. I have to replace the stemco oil seal gasket. That's where it's leaking

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lvmci · November 22, 2016, 03:59:59 PM

hi Scott, did you stay in Flagstaff over night? I've always heard it is an unfriendly town to RVers, I'm in Williams AZ alot, but not with the bus, lvmci...

luvrbus · November 22, 2016, 05:06:21 PM

Flag is not that bad for RV there are so many free campgrounds in that area it's not a problem with parking then you have the Twin Arrow Casino now.Little America is RV friendly with RV pumps and a dump station you can overnight there if you can stand the trucks

lvmci · November 22, 2016, 05:12:34 PM

thanks Clifford, where do you stay up there. Scott, that 2nd picture looks like Belmont, near the camping world. tom, lvmci...

luvrbus · November 22, 2016, 05:19:17 PM

We stay in the camp grounds around the Lowell Observatory, they don't allow camping at Lowell but the campgrounds are only 1/2 mile away

Scott & Heather · November 22, 2016, 08:15:06 PM

We just bought diesel in Flag, never stayed there. Didn't want to ride out the snow any longer than necessary. Our coach is super sound proofed so we generally stay at truck stops overnight and sleep like lil babies. That's what 2lb density spray foam, flooring felt, and stone wool can do for you

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eagle19952 · November 22, 2016, 10:33:47 PM

Quote from: Scott & Heather on November 22, 2016, 08:15:06 PM
We just bought diesel in Flag, never stayed there. Didn't want to ride out the snow any longer than necessary. Our coach is super sound proofed so we generally stay at truck stops overnight and sleep like lil babies. That's what 2lb density spray foam, flooring felt, and stone wool can do for you

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Yes, but is Little Miss Muffet enjoying the ride?

Scott & Heather · November 23, 2016, 04:01:54 AM

Yep she is....except for that pea under her mattress....kinda annoying

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Ed Hackenbruch · November 23, 2016, 07:57:45 AM

At 6000 ft. elevation we only have 81-82% of the oxygen that you have at sea level. So for rough rule of thumb figure you lose 3% for every 1000 ft. of elevation. You can also use that figure for the percentage of power loss for a NA engine. Just had our first frost this morning too.

Lee Bradley · November 23, 2016, 09:57:18 AM

While the coach was sitting in the parking lot, in neutral, I started it and revved it to full throttle. After shutting the coach down, I went back and looked at the filter minder. It was only pulled down maybe a line or two indicating very little restriction at all. So I thought that was off the table for finding my boost issue. After actually driving the coach under load for a few hours, when I went and checked, the filter minder was maxed out to the red line indicating I had major restriction. I reset it and drove, and once again it maxed out to the red line. So here's what I think is going on: When we converted the coach this summer, I had to rebuild the air intake in the bedroom area to allow a flat surface to lay the bed on. This made the intake area much smaller. I assumed it wouldn't make much of a difference but in retrospect I was sadly mistaken.

Something else to learn from this is that running the engine at full throttle with no load makes very little heat. The turbo runs on heat; the more heat the faster it spins, the faster it spins the more air it pumps. This is why the filter minder didn't trip with no load.